Don’t forget to arrive early at the Clubhouse (around 7 PM) for the informal half-hour social period prior to the regular monthly Club Meeting—for refreshments and mingling with fellow Club members and guests.

Soft drinks (12 oz cans of regular and diet Coke, regular and diet Pepsi, regular and diet Sprite—and sometimes other varieties) and snacks are available for a 50 cents donation to "the kitty." 16 oz bottled water is available for 25 cents and a pot of coffee usually is available.

In addition, Refreshments Coordinator Tink Siwecki has been making fresh hot popcorn for our enjoyment. Come early and enjoy refreshments while conducting "eyeball QSO’s" with fellow Club members and meeting guests.

Minutes—March 21 Dinner Meeting

By Fred Stone for Paul Sharp, KD8OPN, Secretary

BARC’s 37th Annual Dinner Meeting was held on the regular 3rd Thursday Club meeting night, March 21, at 6:30 PM in the private Banquet Room at Golden Corral restaurant in Beavercreek.

45 members and spouses plus two visitors attended this event. Attending the event were:

Visitors: Ed Collins N8NUY

Ken Cornett N8SPW

Members:

Carey Alexander K8DOT

Harry Blair WØHAB

Rick KD8DGA & Janese KD8DGB Brooks

Henry Bussey W8TOG

Mark N8PEP & Karen N8VKL Crabtree

Mike KC8GLE & Janice KD8CFN Crawford

Larry KD8RER & Sue Darner

Darryl KD8JQE & Ginny KD8JQF Fowler

Bill Galbraith K8WFG

Ken W8ASA & Beth Gunton

Jay Hain K9GUB

Steve N8XFZ & Rachel KC8BYY Hoadley

Ralph Kanko K4NKO

Elizabeth King (working on Tech license)

John KA8OYH & Linda King

Joe Muchnij N8QOD

Dave N8DCP & Sue Procuniar

Tim N8NQH & Yvonne K8YVN Procuniar

Russ N8NPT & Laura Roysden

John W8QEO & Barb Sellers

Gerd Schrick WB8IFM

Steve KD8NUC & Tink KD8NUA Siwecki

Ron WD8AZC & Peggy Sprauer

Chris KD8APN & Barb Stauter

Fred W8LLY & Mary Ann K8RCJ Stone

Jim Totten WA8HUB

Eric Vinande KG6NFJ

Dave KD8GCR & Kathy Walton

One point of business was conducted to decide about purchasing replacement computers for the BARC Communications Center. A motion was made and seconded to spend up to $2000 for the proposed computers resulting in a unanimous show of hands in favor. Computers will be purchased with a combination of Comm Center Funds and donations from members specifically towards these computers.

Everyone seemed to be having a good time through "eye-ball QSO’s" and informal interaction. The event officially ended when the last attendees left the Banquet Room around 8:30 PM.

BARC Communications Center Laptops

Communications Center Coordinator Ken Gunton proceeded right away to shop for and purchase five laptops in order to have them ready for logging for the WPX SSB contest March 30-31.

The decision to purchase Laptops was made in order to also use them for Field Day logging for the five HF SSB/CW stations.

Four of the laptops will be allocated for the four Communications Center Stations. An external flat screen monitor, an external keyboard and a mouse will be positioned in the center of each operating position to make it easier to read the screen and operate the computers for logging and for digital communications.

The fifth laptop normally will be at the front of the meeting area for use with the magicJack telephone system, for meeting presentations and for internet access but also will be available for Field Day logging.

Several members supported the acquisition of these laptops by making significant donations towards the purchase—thus reducing the "hit" on Comm Center Funds. A summary report on the donations and purchase will be made once available from the Treasurer.

A BIG THANK YOU to those who donated to help make the computer replacement project a reality.

Treasurer’s Report (for February)

By Paul Sharp, KD8OPN, Treasurer

Paul had a scheduling conflict and was unavailable to attend the Annual Dinner Meeting. His February and March Treasurer’s Report will be officially presented for approval at the April Club meeting.

Notes—April 4th Planning Meeting

Following is a summary of the agenda topics, discussions and proposed action plans of the April 4 Planning Group meeting. Meeting began at 7:30 PM

1. Comm Center Planning Ken Gunton and Fred Stone reported on their proposed plans for the Communications Center Stations—equipment allocations and layout and the design of shelving to support the equipment.

2. Clubhouse Projector & Larger Screen Fred Stone reminded the group that with his eventual total retirement he will not be able to provide a project like he has done for the past number of years. Thus, the Club needs to plan for the purchase of a projector or identify an alternative source.

3. April Program Don Parker announced that Mike Carter W8BSI will do a presentation about his experiences with Ohio Task Force 1’s deployment to the New York/New Jersey area following Hurricane Sandy.

4. Constitution and By-Laws Steve Siwecki reported on the C&BL ad hoc committee’s progress in reviewing and drafting revisions. Proposed changes will be presented at the April meeting for discussion and adoption.

5. BARC 2013 Field Day Darryl Fowler reported on a March meeting of the Field Day committee to discuss proposed plans. Darryl is looking for volunteers to assume the various FD functional coordinator positions. The next FD committee meeting will be April 9 at1:30 PM at the Clubhouse.

6. Public Service Darryl Fowler reminder the group about three upcoming BARC public service events: Bellbrook Sugar Maple Festival Parade on Saturday, April 20, Dayton Autism Society 5-K Run/Walk on Saturday, April 27 and the Little Miami River Kleeners "Kleen Sweep" on June 8.

Darryl asked if the Club would like to have a booth or display in Bellbrock Park for the Celebration Picnic at noon following the morning river cleanup event. Fred Stone volunteered to coordinate the planning and set up of a "booth" under a canopy with a display.on a table along with a ham station for monitoring river cleanup communications. A BARC banner will hang from canopy.

7. BARC Weekly Net Eric Vinande announce that the BARC Net meets weekly at 8-PM on the BARC 2m repeater (147.045+, no PL). All BARC members and others are invited and encouraged to participate.

8. BARC Website Discussed proposal to have a secure area (password protected for members only) on the BARC website for the BARC Member Roster. Members will be encouraged to make updates to their information as needed.

9. Comm Center Logging Laptops Ken Gunton proposed using some of the donations for the Station Logging Computers to purchase wireless keyboards and mice. Proposal approved.

10. 2012 Audit Report Steve Siwecki reported that the audit of the 2012 Club financial records has been completed and everything found to be in order. The Audit Report will be presented at the April meeting for general membership review and adoption.

Meeting adjourned at 9:00 PM

Bellbrook Sugar Maple Festival Parade

BARC will be assisting the Bellbrook Sugar Maple Festival Parade Committee again this year on Saturday, April 20th, by helping to direct parade participants to their line-up positions and by providing communications support for coordination, safety and security. As usual, we need around 12 operators to effectively cover this BARC public service event. Please plan to come out and help.

Meet at 10:00 AM in the parking lot of the Bellbrook Community Church on West Franklin Street at Vemco Drive to pick up a line-up sheet, your assignment and a safety vests. Operators need to be at their assigned positions by 10:30 AM. The parade will begin at 11:30 AM. Vehicular units on Vemco will "roll-out" at apx 11:15 AM in order to be at the merging point (intersection of West Franklin St and Little Sugarcreek Road by 11:30.

We will place operators along Vemco/Regent Park Drive (vehicular units) and along Little Sugarcreek Drive (marching and walking units) to line up the parade units.

Two operators will provide communications between on the street in front of Dot’s Market and the Reviewing Stand to confirm final parade line-up for the PA Announcer.

The Little Sugarcreek Road line-up crew will relocate just prior to the parade starting time to merge the parade units at the bridge. Others will pace the parade units along West Franklin Street at the Presbyterian Church and just before the Reviewing Stand.

This is a community service project that BARC has supported since the first Sugar Maple Parade in 1979. So please come out and do your part.

We will further discuss the parade at Thursday’s meeting. If you can help with the parade but cannot make the meeting, please call BARC Public Service Coordinator, Darryl Fowler, KD8JQE, at 310-1039 and let him know (or send email:

We will use BARC’s primary simplex frequency 147.405 for parade operations again this year.

The parade will be held rain or shine unless there is a severe thunderstorm. Advanced forecast shows a 30% chance of rain for Saturday. So bring your rain gear and a plastic bag to protect your HT. Also, bring a fully charged battery or a spare battery and an appropriate antenna for your radio.

Contact Darryl is you have any questions but please plan to help out with this event.

SMF Pancake Breakfast

In conjunction with the Sugar Maple Festival, Bellbrook United Methodist Church (white church at corner of E Franklin & East Streets will be offering a pancake breakfast on Saturday 20 April from 0800 to 1100 in its Community Room—enter from the church parking lot.

Several BARC members and their families usually enjoy a great pancake and sausage breakfast before reporting for duty to help with communications support for the Sugar Maple Festival Parade. Plan to join them. See Darryl for more information

Dayton Autism Society 5K Walk/Run

BARC will again support the Dayton Autism Society 5K Walk/Run on Saturday 27 April. The event starts and ends at the Payne Recreation Center (formerly Moraine Splash) on Main Street (formerly Sellers Road) in Miami Shores (near Moraine Air Park).

We do this event at the request of Amy Schaffnit, daughter of former BARC member and Silent Key Clyde Schaffnit, KB8HV, whose family donated all of Clyde’s equipment for the BARC Communications Center.

Operators will gather at 0800 in the parking lot of the Family Market on Main Street in Miami Shores.

From the intersection of Stroop Road and South Dixie Drive, go west on Stroop Road to dead-end at Springboro Road (SR-741).

Turn LEFT on Springboro Road.

Turn RIGHT at the next intersection onto Main Street (at the traffic light by the Waffle House).

Continue on Main Street past the Moraine Government Center and across the bridge over the Great Miami River.

The Family Market will be at the first street on right after crossing the bridge.

The race should be concluded by around 1100 and we’ll probably meet at the nearby Frisch’s for lunch.

BARC 2013 Field Day Exercise

With more sunshine and warmer temperature and the thought that Spring certainly must be "just around the corner," many of us are getting the urge for BARC’s annual Field Day event.

BARC 2013 Field Day Planning already is in progress. BARC Field Day Coordinator Darryl Fowler KD8JQE already has had a meeting or two and recently conducted an inspection, inventory and sorting of BARC’s Field Day equipment, supplies and support materials – getting ready for amateur radio’s biggest and most popular annual activity.

The ARRL sponsored Field Day is the single most popular on-the-air event held annually in the US and Canada. On the fourth full weekend of June each year, more than 35,000 radio amateurs gather with their clubs, groups or simply with friends to operate from remote locations under conditions that might be experienced during a disaster incident or communications emergency.

Field Day is a picnic, a campout, practice for emergencies, an informal contest and, most of all, FUN! It is a time where many aspects of Amateur Radio come together to highlight our many roles.

BARC’s Field Day site once again will be in and around Shelter #1 at Sackett Wright Park located on State Route 725 along the east edge of Bellbrook. The entrance is located just east of Lower Bellbrook Road.

Mark your calendar now for Saturday & Sunday, June 22-23, and plan to participate. A full schedule will be released later but here are the highlights:

Meet at the site Saturday morning with equipment and supplies to start set-up (everyone welcome)

Preliminary planning calls for five SSB/CW stations and a couple digital stations

BARC Annual Field Day Family Picnic at 1730L

Continue operations until 1400L Sunday

Tear down and secure site—usually done by 1600

Darryl is looking for volunteers to help make BARC’s 2013 Field Day exercise another successful and rewarding event. Let him know if you would like to serve on one of the many "functional groups" supporting BARC’s Field Day activity. Email him at

Thank you to all the members who already have renewed for 2013, and we welcome new members.

Russ Roysden has been working with the Treasurer to prepare a Club Roster and will have copies available at the meeting and to email. We currently have 70 Full Members and two Associate Members.

If you have not yet renewed for 2013 or desire to become a member of BARC, you can see Assistant Treasurer Henry Bussey at the April meeting or send a check to the Treasurer addressed to:

Paul Sharp KD8OPN

BARC Treasurer

PO Box 73

Bellbrook OH 45305

Membership renewal is $15 per member and $3 for each additional family member living at the same address. 2013 dues for NEW members joining in APRIL are $11—pro-rated at $3.00 plus $1.00 for each remaining whole month.

Membership dues support Club activities such as:

Liability Insurance and Equipment Insurance

the Clubhouse including the MagicJack telephone

the Communications Center

the repeaters

Field Day expenses (gasoline, oil, beverages, ice, chicken and supplies for the picnic, etc.)

Guest dinners at the annual dinner meeting

and other purchases and activities as decided by the Club during the year.

the original and one copy of any Certificates of Successful Completion of Examination (CSCE)

the copy of above documents must be submitted with application; originals will be returned

positive identification (photo ID)

Social Security Number (SSN), or FCC Federal Registration Number (FRN) (If you need instructions for obtaining a FRN, please send request to Fred Stone at W8LLY@ARRL.net)

pencil (#2 wooden or mechanical—for answer sheet)

Gerd Meets Abraham Lincoln

Jim Crabtree, a retired language, art and history teacher, who looks like and impersonates Abraham Lincoln provided the program for the Dayton-Cincinnati Chapter 9 Quarter Century Wireless Association December 11 meeting.

Gerd Schrick WB8IFM meets "Abe Lincoln"

Chapter 9 also hosts the annual QCWA Hamvention Banquet and has arranged for Abe (Jim Crabtree) to be the featured speaker (at the Dayton Airport Holiday Inn on Friday, May 17 at 7:30 PM). See Gerd for tickets if interested (

The next Greene County ARES meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 29 at 7:30 PM, in the Training Room at Beavercreek Fire Station 1 on Dayton-Xenia Road, just west of Orchard Lane.

Montgomery County ARES (MoCoARES)

The next Montgomery County ARES general membership meeting will be held Tuesday, April 30 at 7:00 PM at the American Red Cross Dayton Area Chapter, located in downtown Dayton at 370 West First Street, just

east of I-75.

Little Miami River Kleen Sweep

BARC members will provide communications support for the 2013 Little Miami River cleanup on Saturday, June 8. In addition, we will have a display on the grounds of Bellbrock Park for the Celebration Picnic at 12 Noon.

The event involves the simultaneous launching of canoes at 0800 from 10 points along the Little Miami River in Greene County—from the Clifton River Road Reserve to Rivers Edge Canoe Livery just south of Spring Valley. Radio operators are not required to go on the river in the canoes unless they would like too.

Several canoes will be put in the water at each of the 10 points and float down the river—collecting trash and debris along their section—to the next point where they will be taken out of the water. The trash and debris will be stored in collection bins for subsequent pickup and disposal by the County. There also will be cleanup crews walking along the shore of the river as well.

Radio operators will relay any needed messages—such as canoe launching, requests for supplies, canoe arrivals and take-outs, emergencies, etc. to Net Control.

The cleanup is scheduled to be completed by 1130. Once the canoes arrive at each of the "next points" and secure their trash, the radio operator can report in with their status and then secure.

Darryl anticipates needing around 15 volunteers to oversee these locations. From past experience, cell phone reception is not available along many parts of the river. We will use multiple repeaters if necessary to assure solid coverage of the river.

This is a big event this year because Field and Stream Magazine will be doing a special feature article for their magazine; and, will even have some of their own people helping to clean up the river. They will be taking lots of pictures and video during the event for the magazine and their web site. A number of dignitaries from across the state will be attending the celebration picnic in Bellbrock Park at noon

BARC members will check in with Net Control at the Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Community Center at 0700 for an assignment. A directed Net will be held on the 147.045 repeater.

For more information and a map regarding the event or to volunteer, please contact Darryl. He needs your response by May 8. The event can be found at

http://www.lmriverkleeners.org. If you know people who would like to participate in the cleanup, they can volunteer on the web site. BARC radio ops sign up with Darryl—not on the web site.

ARRL Discounted Membership Offer

BARC members are reminded that one of the benefits of Club membership is the opportunity to become an ARRL member or renew an existing ARRL membership at a discounted rate.

BARC is an ARRL affiliated club and receives a commission for ARRL memberships transacted through the Club. BARC passes on this discount as a club membership benefit in order to promote ARRL membership.

New ARRL members currently receive a $15 discount on first year membership cost when placed through the Club. Please contact BARC Treasurer Paul Sharp KD8OPN for details.